Friend Day '07

Our church is having Friend Day this Sunday, when we encourage the whole congregation to invite people to church on this specific day.

Although inviting people to church is a responsibility Christians should always feel, marking out one specific day seems to help. We usually spend three to five weeks planning and talking about evangelism each year in preparation for Friend Day and the attention to the issue helps.

And Friend Day itself is different. Sort of. We try to be sensitive to our guests without being "seeker-sensitive." The phrase "seeker-sensitive" has had a bad rap in years past because some churches have meant they were going to cut out the seemingly "offensive" parts of the service, i.e. the long sermons, the offerings, communion, etc.

But we're not going to engage in bait-and-switch. We'll have communion and offering and a 30-35 minute sermon and everything that we normally do. However, the content of the sermon and worship and prayer, etc. are going to be somewhat more user-friendly. We understand that on a typical Sunday, we use more Christian jargon and explore more complex issues than a typical un-churched person would be used to. We'll try to accommodate that.

So please invite someone to church on Sunday. Bring them with you and prepare to follow up with them afterwards. Communicate with me about who you brought and whether they would be interested in coming again. Find out if they have questions and let me know if I can help.

Whatever you do, don't chicken out!